"Generally ok, some things could've been better...."

I was admitted due to severe abdominal pain. I was given a small room to myself which looked recently cleaned (in fact the cleaners came in a few hrs later again which was impressive). The nurse took my blood and put me on a drip, stating that I would need to provide a urine sample. Despite telling me this, he didn't give me a specimen bottle, so I had to wait until another nurse came in later to ask for one (surprised he forgot considering they were not busy at the time I was admitted and when I asked if they were short staffed, he said no), but that's something easily overlooked. The main problem I found was with the doctor that assessed me. She informed me that my blood test showed some sign of inflammation, but didn't elaborate. When she came back to collect my urine sample, she said it was probably something to do with my ovaries due to where my pain was and that she would speak to a gynae to do a uss on me (again, did not explain what inflammed ovaries was and what the cause for this is). Then she came back, she told my dad that I was being discharged as it was nothing life threatening, and that as the blood tests came back as normal, I should come back to do a uss if nil improvement in 24hrs. Was my blood test normal or not? Why not just do the uss there and then? And above all, what was my diagnosis? Inflamed ovaries was what she said was a possibility but she never explained what that was, what causes that, whether this would be recurrent and if that wasn't it then what else it could be. Whilst I am not medically trained, it would have put my mind at ease if I had a more detailed explanation so I knew what the chances of it were that this would happen again. Aside from that though she was good, very friendly and gave me a blanket when she saw I was wrapped in my coat. I just would have liked a more consistent explanation.

Responses

Hello, Thank you for your feedback. If you would like PALS to escalate your concerns to a senior member of staff for investigation and response to your questions. Please contact PALS at pals@chelwest.nhs.uk, including your patient's details. Kind Regards Patient Advice and Liaison Service Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust